AN: Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! We'll be back with a part three for sure and see what happens after that! Thanks for reading! - Vanessa

Looking Too Closely – Part III

"I fucked up." Damon told Alaric as they stood beside each other in the tuxedo shop, getting their final fittings. Enzo hadn't arrived yet, and he hadn't heard from him, which was starting to concern Damon.

Ric glanced up at him in the mirror. "Fucked up how?"

"I told Bonnie I loved her." He stated, and Ric quickly darted a glance around before, shooing away the tailor.

"Damon, are you out of your fucking mind!" he whispered harshly. "Why in God's name would you do that now?!"

Damon leaned in. "She kissed me, Ric. Three days ago."

"What? How am I only hearing about this now?" he demanded.

"We got caught up in the moment, I know she felt guilty about it and the words were out of my mouth before I could stop it." Damon explained lowly, reliving how that moment played out all over again.

"What did she say?"

"She freaked out. Made me promise to never tell Enzo, but I haven't heard from him in days, and I'm starting to wonder why." Damon admitted anxiously, fixing his cuffs.

"You think he knows?"

Damon shook his head. "I hope not."

Ric's eyes darted to the door. "How do you think he'd react if he found out?"

He scoffed. "Blind rage."

Ric clapped him on the shoulder. "Well…he's here, and 'blind rage' looks very probable." As Enzo approached, he forced a smile. "Hey man, what took you so long?"

Enzo's jaw clenched. "Sorry mate it's been a rough couple of days. Can you give us a minute?" It was less of a request and more of a demand, and all Alaric could do was nod, shooting Damon a quick glance, that said 'good luck'.

Forcing an unaffected look to his face, Damon turned to Enzo. "Everything okay?" His stomach was flipping inside him as he waited.

"Wedding's off." He grumbled lowly; his eyes hardened in a steely glare.

Damon blinked, reeling back. "What?"

"It's over…Bonnie and I are done." He gestured around him. "All of this is for nothing."

Damon stopped him before he could go to the manager. "Whoa, hang on a minute…Enzo, what happened?"

"Bonnie called off the wedding. We've been together for over a decade, getting married was the next step! Now all of a sudden, she decides this isn't what she wants and I'm just supposed to accept it?" He paced a hole in the floor as he ranted, drawing the attention of Ric and an employee in the store.

Damon couldn't believe it. "Enzo, this is just another fight, you'll get through it; you always do."

Enzo shook his head. "No…no we won't. She kissed another man, Damon. We're done."

"When?" he asked with a deep frown.

Enzo pinned him with a glare. "I didn't ask for all the details. When it happened, who it was, none of that matters…what matters is that it happened and it was enough to make her question our whole relationship. Eleven years down the fucking drain!" Enzo grumbled storming passed Damon to the back of the shop, to settle the payment for the suits that will never be worn.

Damon stood there, shell shocked, as Ric walked up. "What the fuck was that about?"

"The wedding is off."

…

"What?!" Caroline and Elena exclaimed at the same time. They stood at the end of Bonnie's bed, where she sat cross-legged in her pajamas, her cheeks tear stained and her bed littered with Kleenex.

"It's over. The wedding is off." Bonnie sniffled, refusing to meet their eyes.

Elena came around and sat next to her, pulling her hand into her lap. "What happened? What did he do?"

Bonnie laughed ironically. "Enzo didn't do anything. I did." She took a deep breath and forced herself to meet their eyes, knowing the judgement that would follow. "I kissed someone else."

"What?"

"Who?"

Bonnie winced. "Damon."

"Bonnie…" Elena admonished with disappointment.

She buried her face in her hands. "I know!"

Caroline snapped her head to her. "Why!?"

Bonnie looked up with a helpless shrug. "It occurred to me that I have never even kissed anyone other than Enzo. A part of me wondered what it would be like."

"Yeah, but Damon?!" Caroline exclaimed. "He's a total asshole!"

"It's complicated, Care…" Bonnie started rubbing her forehead tiredly and missed Elena's speculative stare. "Look Enzo doesn't know, and I'd like to keep it that way, okay? It'll ruin their friendship if he finds out."

Caroline scoffed. "Please! Why are you covering for him? You were drunk, he took advantage. He deserves whatever he gets, Bonnie!" She stated with finality.

Elena sighed. "Caroline…" she warned.

"I was fully aware of what I was doing, you don't have to make excuses for me." She shot back exasperatedly. This was classic Caroline; making justifications and judgements on things she couldn't understand. "I kissed him, and he was the one who put a stop to it. If he hadn't..." If she was being honest with herself, Bonnie would have fully succumbed to the feelings he had evoked in her that night. He made her feel sexy, and there was a trill of excitement when she felt his hands on her that made her think of him touching her more intimately.

"So you are throwing away everything you have with Enzo over one kiss with Damon? He can't be that good!" Caroline argued.

Bonnie and Elena shared a sly smile that they both desperately tried to cover. "Look, I didn't break up with Enzo because of Damon. I just feel like…Enzo and I are running in place. Like we were getting married because we thought we should, not because it's what we really want. And Damon was the only one that was honest with me about it." She shot a pointed look to her friends.

Every time she had doubts, they were both quick to tell Bonnie that 'cold feet is normal', and 'you're high school sweethearts, you belong together'. Through all the fights and break ups, they always encouraged her to go back to him, if not for their own ignorance. But not Damon…he told her exactly what she was dreading to hear, but it was exactly what she needed. And when she ran into him at the club that night, she saw him differently. He showed her a different side of himself; one she found that she liked.

The whole night was filled with a flirty innuendo that sparked a primal energy in her that she never felt with anyone else, and when she kissed him, it was like that part of her got set on fire. She knew how wrong it was to feel this way, and when that set in, the guilt weighed heavy on her. What was worse…she didn't regret it like she thought she would, and that told her everything she needed to know.

…

The next few weeks were spent with Damon doing damage control. He sat beside his friend at the bars while he drank himself stupid, and walked him home to his empty apartment when he could barely hold himself up. Elena had gone home to Seattle, Bonnie, he heard, was staying with Caroline and Stefan, and Damon was left wondering what the hell Bonnie was thinking. He hadn't heard from her since that night, and he had a million questions for her. Enzo didn't seem to know anything about his feelings or that he was the reason for all of this, but it was only a matter of time before that came out.

So, when he finally made it home after a long day of keeping Enzo from boiling over the edge, he was both relieved and concerned when he saw her sitting on the floor by his door. When Bonnie saw him, she hopped to her feet shoved her hands in her back pockets. "Hey…"

"Hey. Pretty risky showing up here." He started as he walked over, unlocking the door. "What if I wasn't alone?"

She hadn't thought about that, only that she had to speak to him, in person. Bonnie looked him over; she could see the stress and the tension corded in his muscles. "I need to talk to you. Can I come in?"

Damon nodded, and allowed her to walk in first before following in after. "What the hell is going on, Bonnie?" he asked her, tossing his keys on the counter. "You don't answer my calls, I have Enzo asking questions I can't give him the answers to and I'm…" he expelled a deep breath and shook his head.

"What?" she urged.

"I'm feeling like this whole thing is my fault." Damon admitted lowly.

Bonnie walked over to him, shaking her head. "It's not. I think Enzo and I were over a long time ago, but you were right; we've been together for so long that we were afraid of letting it go. But if it didn't happen now, it would have happened at some point down the road and I'm sure it would have been a lot worse. Enzo is upset now, but he didn't want this. What do you think all our fights are about? He only proposed because he knew our relationship was on life support and this was his only way to save it. And I said yes because I was afraid to admit that I had given up looking for something more."

Damon swallowed, doing his best to keep his guard up. "And what something more is that?"

"I don't know yet. Damon, about what happened…" she started hesitantly.

He was suddenly uncomfortable, and he moved further in his apartment, shedding his jacket and tossing it on the couch. "We don't have to talk about it."

She followed him into the living room. "Yes, we do."

He rounded on her. "Well, I don't want to talk about it, okay? I should have never have said what I said." He berated himself.

She tipped her chin up, and planted her hands on her hips. "Did you mean it?"

"Of course I meant it! Doesn't mean I should have put that on you. It's my burden to bear, not yours." Damon groused in frustration.

"Burden?" She shot back disgruntled.

"Yeah! And I was handling it just fine before you waltzed in here, all doe eyed and looking for honesty! I was dealing with it in my own way!" He exclaimed.

"How! By lying to me about it? That's not dealing, Damon, it's avoiding." She shot back, feeling a familiar fire burn when her and Damon would get into their heated exchanges.

He closed in on her. "And what was I supposed to do, Bon? Bare my soul to you, knowing full well that you don't feel the same? Break my best friend's heart by telling him I'm in love with his fiancé?! Who does that serve; because it sure as hell doesn't serve me!" The veins in his neck and forehead bulged as his voice raised. He saw the hurt on her face, and he deflated, letting out a heavy sigh. "I pushed you away to keep you from looking too closely and I made you hate me so I wouldn't have to feel guilty about it." Damon dropped his gaze to the floor, unable to show her this level of vulnerability.

He heard her heeled boots clicking on the hardwood as she approached. "I never hated you, Damon. Actually…I always kind of admired you." She smiled when he scoffed disbelievingly. "It's true. You don't pretend to be someone you aren't. You do what you want, you say what you want…it made you a dick, but I think I liked that about you." She laughed and it made him crack a grin.

He studied her for a long moment, the words sitting on the tip of his tongue. "Why did you kiss me, Bonnie?"

"Because I wanted to…because for once I wanted to do something without thinking it through long enough to talk myself out of it. It wasn't until I did it that I realized what a mistake it was." She said softly. He dropped his gaze from her, stung by her admission. She came to stand in front of him, tilting her head to catch his glance. "Because that something more…I feel like I got a taste of it when I kissed you, and now I don't know what to do about it." She explained apprehensively, eying him for his reaction.

Damon frowned glancing back up at her. He'd never felt more vulnerable than he did right now. His stomach was in knots as he tried to deceiver what she was trying to tell him. The last few weeks have been filled with tension and uncertainty, and it all boiled down to the outcome of this conversation; would he lose Bonnie forever? Would his friendship with Enzo fall apart? Would he even know what it would be like to truly have her? "What do you want to do?" He asked finally in a low rasp.

Bonnie reached out and grabbed his hand, putting it to her face as she closed the distance between them, and coasting her other hand up his chest. It trembled against the thin fabric of his shirt, and Damon's heart raced beneath it. "I want you to be the one to show me everything I've been missing out on." She whispered nervously. "Can you?"

His chest rose and fell as he thought about what she was asking him, and all the reasons why he shouldn't. But his need outweighed all reason, and he pulled her in closer, capturing her lips in a heated kiss. Bonnie felt a bolt of excitement shoot through her, immediately igniting her arousal and she clung onto him like a life vest as he kissed her with more passion than she'd ever felt. She moaned when he sucked on her lip, as he backed her up to the kitchen island, his hands roaming over her back and hips. Damon lifted her effortlessly, resting her on the counter and settling between her thighs. Bonnie's fingers tunnelled through his hair as he descended kisses down her neck, relishing in the breathless sighs of her pleasure. Her grip tightened and he groaned in approval, enjoying the way she relinquished herself to him when he slipped her sweater off her shoulders, exposing the thin straps of her tank top and bra.

Bonnie was trembling with desire as he slipped her top off her head, and his mouth traced a path from her collarbone to her navel. "Damon…bedroom?" Her half-lidded, glossy green eyes were dilated as she looked down at him.

A smirk pulled on his lips. "Uh-uh. You want me to show you all the things you've been missing out on…" Damon rose to his full height, running both his hand up her parted thighs and gently pressing his thumbs up her jean clad center, earning a whimper out of her. Bonnie was biting down on her lower lip, her chest heaving as she leaned back on her hands. Never in a thousand years did he think he'd have the pleasure to see her laid out like this for him. "It starts with a little adventure." His fingers deftly unbuttoned the button on her jeans, and slowly lowered the zipper, his eyes never leaving hers; silently asking if she still wanted to do this. Her gaze didn't waver. Peeling her jeans down her legs, Damon allowed himself to appreciate every curve of her body; every dimple, every freckle. "All you have to do is trust me."

She nodded, pulling him I closer with one bare leg. "I trust you."

…

AN: There will be a part four to wrap this up, I think! Thank you for your reviews!